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MAD KNITTING!
I've got a doctorate in music, two kiddos, and a passion for making. Music gives me focus, motherhood keeps me grounded, and crafting (knitting in particular) keeps me from going mad. This blog is a glimpse into my creative life.

self-control

I have so little of it. Just when I'm thinking I should knit up at least part of the ridiculous pile of yarn I have collecting dust (well, figuratively speaking, as it's all in air-tight containers) before buying more, I have to go and fall off the wagon. In my defense, though, every purchase I've made in the last two days was absolutely necessary and intended for projects that need to be knitted up soon.

Wanna see?

First up, a couple things I picked up yesterday that will be made into thank you gifts for two fellow musicians helping me out with my exit recital. That's in less than two weeks, so chances are not good that I'll get these done by the performance date, but I can get away with giving them around Christmas, methinks.

Here is 1 skein of Cascade 220 in a gorgeous red, to be made into a Koolhaas hat:

And here are 3 skeins of Rowan DK wool in cream, to be made into Aran mittens from this book:

Next, a single skein of Twizzle, a handpainted merino/silk blend from Mountain Colors. I was at Lakeside Fibers today meeting a newspaper reporter to do an interview for a story on Madison moms who blog (she chose the location, not me, I swear). As Daniel and I were heading out to leave, he stopped to pet some of the hand painted yarn near the door. Seriously! He did not pull out the skeins and drop them on the floor or try and flush them in the toilet or get them all tangled or any manner of destructive things you might expect a nearly 2yo to do. He petted them gently and looked up at me and smiled, and as I was ogling the gorgeous colors and the beautiful skeins, I said to him, "Daniel, do you want me to make you a hat and mittens out of one of these?" He nodded. That did it. Next thing you know, I was pulling out my debit card and I came home with this:

(Of course, I could have said any number of things, like "Daniel, do you want to go to Mars and have some pizza?" and he probably would have nodded in any case. It's sort of an automatic response. This can be very confusing when one is trying to sort out what he wants to eat for lunch, but I digress.)

So, you see, I needed to buy these. I didn't have anything suitable in my stash for Aran mittens, I didn't have a good color for the Koolhaas hat (not for this particular person, anyway), and I'm sure I could dig something out to make Daniel a hat and mittens but this Mountain Colors yarn is so gorgeous I couldn't resist, especially with his green-brown eyes and blond hair. Yeah, mama's a sucker.

Moving on, then, to knitting I've actually been doing, as oppose to just planning.

Here's a Koolhaas hat pour moi out of some kind of purple heather (Cascade, again). The Addi needles I'm using are too slippery, but I don't want to buy more needles right now, so I'm just coping with it. I had a nice hat, but I gave it to my mom because 1) she was cold and 2) I kind of wanted an excuse to try this pattern for myself.

Last, the EZ tomten for AFA. I'm up to the collar. I think I'll use that brown yarn as a contrast color for the beginning of the sleeves and an edging. The color is less fecal and more chocolate in real life, trust me.

What else do I have up my sleeve? Well, I really really wanna make Glenna's new Basic Black from Magknits, for starters, but school and essential gift-knitting and the reality that I'm preggers and can't exactly check for fit right now (or for a good 6 months at least) is holding me up. In fact, I've been thinking about a few different sweaters I'd like to make myself, but it's probably better to wait. I mean, I could make something floppy and oversized, but that's not really my style. In the meantime, for many moons now I've been meaning to write up a pattern for a hat I made my husband last winter, and now that cold weather is here again, perhaps that would be a good project. If my husband will wear it, probably somebody else would. He's extremely picky.

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Comments

Never fear, think of all the hats and mitts and scarves and other things you can knit while you wait for sweater-knitting time! Sense of accomplishment, my friend, that's what the small projects will get you. ;) And the sweaters aren't going anywhere :D